


There are agents in your office

by Cinder7storm4



Series: Theodosia Barba Drabbles [8]
Category: Law & Order: SVU
Genre: Angst, Bonding, Dad Barba, Emails, FBI investigations, Family, Gen, M/M, Politics, Raf's ex sucks, house of representative races, vetting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-04
Updated: 2018-06-04
Packaged: 2019-05-17 23:25:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,683
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14841212
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cinder7storm4/pseuds/Cinder7storm4
Summary: Theo finally reveals why she couldn't work for Andy's campaign until the vetting process was over for candidates. It involves angst, emails, and her crappy mom's meddling.





	There are agents in your office

**Author's Note:**

> I do not own Law and Order: SVU

The week crept by, but Rafael couldn’t shake the apprehension that had hold of him. Theo had told them repeatedly that he and Sonny had nothing to worry about, but she was obviously hiding something that had to do with the race in the 47th. The news cycle in his office had been running through the senatorial vetting process, but so far nothing too intense had come up. 

It was Friday and even Theo had seemed antsy at breakfast. 

However, everything everything came to a head as Sonny returned to Raf’s office with him after a successful morning court session to be greeted by a slightly frazzled Carmen.

“What’s wrong?” Raf reached out for his assistant, steadying her.

“There are FBI agents in your office and they’ve got Theo with them,” Carmen whispered quietly to him. 

Raf didn’t wait for her to finish speaking but he rushed into his office, flinging the door open only to be greeted by his daughter leaning casually against one of his bookshelves talking casually to a man with an FBI jacket that he recognized on sight. Another two agents were seated but stood up as he came in, “Ash?”

The man talking to Theo turned toward him, “Raf,” he nodded at his former brother-in-law.

“Theo are you alright?”

“Yeah, I’m fine,” she said, an edge to her voice as she looked at the other agents, “You all really have a flair for dramatics you know that right. You couldn’t have warned him?”

“I figured you would just…”

“Ignore the gag order? Not on your life, Rosario,” Theo quipped back at Ashley Rosario.

“Do you mind telling us what you’re doing here, then?” Sonny interjected leaning against the door that he’d closed, sizing up the agents.

“Not at all, Detective,” one of the agents who’d been sitting turned to look at them, it was Frank Carter.

“I would talk fast, because the last time we saw you…” Sonny started speaking.

“He was in the company of my harpy-like sister, yeah,” Ash jumped in, “Long story short, we’ve been investigating Rebecca for about four and a half years and Frank’s been undercover throughout it all.”

“Investigating her for what?” Raf asked, shock forcing him into lawyer mode.

“Fraud, amongst other things, but definitely corporate fraud, impersonation possibly, standard white collar crimes,” it was Theo who responded then, “I knew, which was why I couldn’t help Andy until they took her in,” as if anticipating her dad’s next question, “They took her in this morning. It’ll hit the news shows within the hour.”

“So, why are you two here?” Raf asked the other agents, excluding Ash. 

“Theo’s got some information that she needs to hand over, but we figured it would be best to have it done in front of legal counsel,” Ash responded. 

“Don’t you need a statement or something too?” Sonny asked, but Theo shook her head.

“No, Ash came to see me at Halton every few months. He’s got everything he needs. It should be quick,” Theo replied, voice quieter than before, “Argon, here,” she dug into her bag to extract a large file folder and a laptop. She pushed off the bookshelf, extending them both to the third agent, who came forward to take the things from her. 

Carter and Argon excused themselves, from the room, “We’ll see you back at HQ, boss,” Carter said to Ash, and nodded at Theo, “See you around, T.”

Theo nodded, but didn’t look up. 

Sonny moved from the door to come up to Raf’s side, “Want to take a seat, Ash?” Raf asked, “I think we’ll be here for a bit.”

Ash nodded. Raf settled behind his desk and Sonny perched on the corner of it, “Theo?” Raf spoke quietly, and she sat in the other chair across from her dad. 

He looked at Ash, “So, how’d this happen?” he gestured between the agent and his daughter. 

“She contacted me, about four months after he ended up at Halton with emails and notes,” Ash spoke calmly in a measured tone.

“Emails?” Raf asked, interest piqued. 

“Yeah, she used to send me… emails,” Theo spoke quietly.

“What kind of emails, Theo?” Raf asked, leaning toward his daughter.

Theo wanted nothing more than to put her head in her hands and curl up into a ball, but she didn’t, “Lies, just crap…”

“Theo,” Raf said, softly leaving his chair to walk around his desk to kneel down beside his daughter.

“Becca used to contact her, but not as herself. She stole your passwords Raf, she used your email,” Ash spoke just as softly as Raf.

Raf’s breath hitched in his throat. It all made sense now. Theo hadn’t only felt abandoned by him, she’d been attacked. 

“That’s what was in the folder,” Theo muttered, “Copies. The laptop too.”

Raf placed a hand on Theo’s, “Sweetheart, I…”

“I know, I know it wasn’t you…” the following ’now’ was silent but hung in the air between them all. 

“I think we should go home,” Raf said after a beat or two, “I’ll call your school.”  
“Already done,” Ash stated.

“Okay,” Theo whispered. Ash leant over and smoothed his niece’s hair down before putting a hand on her shoulder, “Give me a shout when you can, okay T?”

She nodded. Then Sonny stood up to leave too — meeting Raf’s eyes and smiling slightly. He pressed a kiss to Theo’s head and murmured that he’d see them at home later. After kissing Raf’s cheek, Sonny followed Ash to the elevator. 

—-

“So, you’re Theo’s uncle,” Sonny commented as the elevator doors closed.

“And you’re the man who’s made her dad happy and made her feel more secure than she has in years,” Ash put out a hand to shake Sonny’s, “I’m glad to meet you, Detective.”

“Please Agent, call me Sonny.”

“Call me Ash.”

—  
Raf’s office was quiet. Too quiet. Theo hated the silence.

“Dad?” she whispered, if it hadn’t been so quiet he’d never have heard her. She hadn’t looked at him since she’d sat down.

Raf tangled their fingers together and gently pulled his daughter to her feet, “Let’s go home.” Theo nodded, still avoiding his gaze.

It felt like it took forever to get home, when really the lack of afternoon traffic had them home in under fifteen minutes. They entered the apartment together, and Raf took Theo’s jacket, thankful she didn’t flinch away from the hug that followed. 

“Can we talk in the living room?” Raf asked her quietly. 

“Sure,” he hated hearing her voice so quiet.

They settled on the couch, Raf on one end and Theo right next to him. He was happy that she didn’t sit farther away. 

“What are you willing to tell me?” Raf asked.

“I’m not sure… Dad, I don’t want this to cause us problems,” Theo replied. 

“I just want you to be honest with me,” Raf stated sincerely. 

“I want you to know that I know it wasn’t you…”

“Now, now you do, but then?” Raf pressed her, “I would rather you talk to me Theo, even if it hurts.”

“But I don’t want to hurt you though,” she murmured, curling up a bit.

“It will hurt me more if you don’t keep me in the loop.”

“It started about a week after I arrived at Halton… I don’t know how she knew where I was, but I woke up one morning and checked my messages and it was there, in my inbox. I wasn’t thinking straight really at that time. It went on for about three months, a new one came every few days or so,” Theo spoke softly. 

“How often?”

“Every three days.”

“What did they say?”

“Stupid stuff…”

“Theo,” he said, putting a hand on her arm.

“She was trying to make it worse, between us… she… if you really want to know I can give you copies, but I don’t want to talk about it right now. I, I just want…”

“What, sweetheart? What do you want?” 

“I just want us to be okay.”

“We are,” Raf tipped his daughter’s face up to look at him, “We are okay. You are my world. That, will not change.”

Theo gave him a small, genuine smile.

“I will take you up on copies though, sweetheart. I need the information… and I’ll want to talk to you about them. Is that okay?”

“I… Yes, yes. I understand why so… yeah, it’s okay.”

“Thank you,” Raf put a hand on her shoulder and Theo leaned against him.  
“Need cuddles,” she whispered, he tugged her closer, then she started speaking again, slightly louder, “Tiff.”

“Your roommate, from Halton.”

“Andy’s daughter, yeah. She found them on my laptop. I’d loaned it to her for something and forgotten to lock the messages. She confronted me about it and I thought…” Theo huffed, “I thought she was going to charter a plane to New York. She was pissed.”

“I’m glad you’ve got friends like that” Raf told her, hugging her closer. 

“Well, after she came down from being a vengeful angel, she was the one who noticed some rerouting in the emails when she compared them to previous ones you had actually sent me.”

“Once I figured out they were coming from… her… I set about cross-referencing some other weird stuff and then, I called Ash.”

“You called Ash?”

“Yeah, he’d always been good to us, dad.”

“Yes, he has… I wish you had told me too though,” Raf whispered, “But I probably was the last person you wanted to hear from then.”  
“That’s not true,” Theo nudged him with her head, “It just wasn’t easy, for either of us.”

“So you built a case, over four years, without telling me?”

“I’m sorry, dad.”

“Don’t be, I’m sorry.”

“Let’s agree to be mutually sorry, then.”

“I’m good with that,” he murmured, “So are you going to help Andrea’s campaign now?”

“I hope to. I did get to her to run after all.”

“You do have plans for world domination, don’t you?”

“Maybe,” Theo grinned up at her dad, “I’ll let you know when the time comes, I promise.”


End file.
